Human Rights International Relations Lead Story News
The outgoing UN human rights chief kept Burma under the microscope in parting remarks to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, noting the government’s failure to cooperate with multiple probes into alleged rights abuses.
Two Burmese journalists for Reuters were honoured in absentia with the PEN America 2018 Barbey Freedom to Write Award on Tuesday in New York, as they remain behind bars more than 8,000 kilometres away, facing charges for what the international news agency says was “simply doing their jobs.”
International Relations Lead Story News
Burma’s perennially contentious relationship with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation moved no closer toward amicability this week as the two sides traded barbs over the situation in Rakhine State, where a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims tied to allegations of ethnic cleansing has heaped global censure on the government.
International Relations Lead Story News Sport
The English football club Leeds United may be kicking itself this week after its boisterous announcement that it will be bringing the squad to Burma next month was met with widespread condemnation.
Parliament on Wednesday voted for Win Myint as president, a National League for Democracy stalwart who will now serve, ostensibly, as Burma’s most powerful civilian leader.
Elected MPs in the Lower House on Friday selected Win Myint, the chamber’s former speaker, as its pick for vice president and concurrently its presidential nominee, in a landslide vote that has locked in his status as Burma’s presumptive next president.
Lead Story News Parliament Politics
The speaker of Parliament’s Lower House, Win Myint, has resigned his post, with word of his stepping down coming shortly after the President’s Office announced that President Htin Kyaw would be resigning effective immediately.
Joining a rising chorus of voices objecting to the encroachment of Burma Army troops into territory in Karen State, hundreds of villagers in the state’s Hpapun Township staged a protest on Monday, calling on the military to withdraw its forces.
PEN America, a New York-based literary and human rights advocacy group, will confer its PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award on the two Reuters reporters arrested by Burmese authorities in December.
The prominent Rakhine nationalist politician Aye Maung was arrested on Thursday and is facing criminal prosecution after he gave a speech in which, according to state media, he “urged the people to take advantage of the weakness of the government and to march towards the goal of sovereignty.”
The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma arrives in Bangladesh on Thursday, vowing to fulfill her mandate despite being blacklisted by the Burmese government from continuing her work in the country that is her focus.
A longtime former Reuters correspondent has been appointed as Burma’s deputy information minister in an awkwardly timed career move, given that two of the international news agency’s Burmese reporters are currently on trial for what their boss has called “a blatant attack on press freedom.”
Dozens of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists have joined a growing chorus of voices demanding the release of two Reuters reporters detained by Burmese authorities earlier this month, calling their arrests “an outrageous attack on media freedom.”
Twenty-four political parties release a statement opposing the recent appointment of five foreign nationals to a 10-member “advisory team” tasked with monitoring implementation of recommendations laid out in August by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State.
Two Burmese reporters for the Reuters news bureau in Yangon were detained on Tuesday evening in the commercial capital’s northern suburbs.
Arakan Lead Story News Rakhine
President Htin Kyaw has established yet another governmental body to address the situation in troubled Rakhine State, this one comprised of Burmese and foreign members including the chairman of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission and a former US presidential aspirant.
Human Rights International Relations Lead Story News Rohingya
The UN Human Rights Council voted Tuesday to condemn the alleged rights violations perpetrated by Burmese security forces against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, in a vote of 33 in favour and three against. Nine nations abstained.
International Relations Lead Story News Refugees Rohingya
Burma and Bangladesh have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) concerning the repatriation of more than 600,000 refugees from Rakhine State’s Rohingya Muslim community who have fled the state’s north en masse over recent months.
International Relations Lead Story News
The United Nations has appointed Norwegian Knut Ostby to serve as interim UN resident coordinator in Burma, replacing Renata Lok-Dessallien and serving in the role “until further notice,” according to a UN statement released Tuesday.
International Relations Lead Story Military News Rohingya
The European Union deals a blow to what had been increasingly warm ties between the bloc and Burma’s military, saying it will suspend any invitations to the Tatmadaw’s top brass and “review all practical defence cooperation,” as well as maintaining an existing arms embargo.
Aung San Suu Kyi announces the creation of yet another body with the challenging portfolio of improving the situation in crisis-stricken Arakan State, saying it would include a broad spectrum of actors, both domestic and foreign.
International Relations Lead Story Military News
The Tatmadaw lashed out at the British government on Wednesday after the latter suspended military-to-military engagement in the wake of a counter-insurgency campaign by security forces in Arakan State that the UN has described as “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya Muslims there.
Arakan Lead Story News Rohingya Suu Kyi
“We feel deeply for the suffering of all the people who have been caught up in the conflict,” she told an audience in Naypyidaw that included members of the foreign diplomatic corps.
The BBC’s Burmese-language news service has severed ties with Burma’s MNTV, with the former citing “interference” from the state broadcaster, saying it had constituted “a serious breach of trust with our audiences.”
Lead Story News Technology & Science
Hackers targeted several government websites this week, according to state media, apparently in retaliation for Burma’s treatment of the country’s Muslim minority, as international attention on the plight of the Rohingya in Arakan State intensifies.
The firebrand nationalist monk U Wirathu headlined a rally on Wednesday at which he spoke in dire terms of the “marauding” threat posed by Muslims in western Burma, labelled international aid groups operating there “terrorists,” and thwarted Buddhist authorities’ attempts to rein in his public profile.
The prominent Burmese journalist Swe Win was arrested at Yangon International Airport on Sunday evening as he attempted to leave Burma, with authorities justifying his detention on the grounds that he faces trial on charges of defamation.
The trial of three journalists and three other men accused of “unlawful association” with an ethnic armed group began in earnest on Friday, with a court in Hsipaw Township, Shan State, taking testimony from the case’s plaintiff, an army major.
The Buddhist nationalist group formerly known as Ma Ba Tha once again struck a defiant tone this week, releasing a statement proclaiming: “No matter which names the association has adopted, no changes will be made in terms of the standpoint of the association.”
Human Rights International Relations Lead Story News
Yanghee Lee arrived in Rangoon on Sunday for her sixth visit to Burma as UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the country.
